NBA

Fantasy Basketball: The Punting Game, Version 4

The guide to valuing your players more effectively.

Since version 3, we have had a ridiculous number of injuries- Anthony Davis, Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce, Deron Williams, Marc Gasol and Larry Sanders have all gone down either for an extended IR stay or even worse, the whole season. I knew going into my drafts that I wasn't going to touch D-Rose with 10-foot pole, but man, I didn't expect this. This is just unprecedented bad luck.

Note: For the tables below, I have taken out injured players as their values are unchanging and clog up the data. Obviously Anthony Davis hasn't lost his value, but for the sake of this column, it will be a lot more beneficial to discuss players currently in action.

Observations

If you've read any of my other articles here on numberFire, you're probably very aware of my man-crush on Pistons big guy Andre Drummond. He and Anthony Davis are emerging as the future frontcourt superstars of the NBA, and he continues to get better and better. As you can see in the tables below, he is officially the most valuable player in fantasy when punting free throw percentage. If you're in a keeper or dynasty league, do anything to get him.

Last time I dismissed Ryan Anderson as a legitimate top-10 fantasy player, but here he is, still in our tables. His season debut coincided right with Anthony Davis breaking his hand, so Anderson was immediately vaulted into situation where he had to produce at a high level. He will continue to be a good fantasy player, especially with Davis out, but pay attention to Davis' rehab. When you hear that he is coming back, I would trade high on Anderson if I could get top-20 value for him.

A guy I'm looking to buy low on is Spurs wing Kawhi Leonard. He was projected to be a top-25 fantasy guy before the season, but is currently ranked 43 by Yahoo!. This was definitely not the production that Kawhi owners were hoping for as he had the upside to be even a top-15 guy, but there is hope. If you punt points, 3s, or assists, he becomes a top-25 player. He showed last season that he can put up both points and three's, so if you can get him at that 45-50 value range, I expect he'll hit top-25 all around by the end of the year.

Making his way into top 10s in a bunch of these tables is OKC big man Serge Ibaka. With both Anthony Davis and Larry Sanders out for the time being, Ibaka has become one of the most valuable commodities in fantasy basketball. All three of those guys were among the few fantasy players that could single-handedly win you a category (blocks). Now, it's just Ibaka. I would make a move for him if the Ibaka owner in my league was willing.

Updated tables below, go poach some value.

Punting Points

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Chris Paul0.780.76-0.02
T-2Kevin Durant0.800.52-0.28
T-2Stephen Curry0.660.52-0.14
4Ryan Anderson0.620.48-0.14
5Paul George0.660.47-0.19
6Spencer Hawes0.440.45+0.01
7LeBron James0.650.42-0.23
8Dirk Nowitzki0.510.40-0.11
9Serge Ibaka0.350.38+0.03
10Kevin Love0.550.37-0.18

Punting 3PM

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Chris Paul0.780.87+0.09
2Kevin Durant0.800.82+0.02
3LeBron James0.650.67+0.02
T-4LaMarcus Aldridge0.360.56+0.20
T-4Brook Lopez0.360.56+0.20
T-6Dirk Nowitzki0.510.52+0.01
T-6Paul George0.660.52-0.14
T-6Serge Ibaka0.350.52+0.17
9Andre Drummond0.300.49+0.19
10Kevin Love0.550.47-0.08

Punting Rebounds

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Chris Paul0.780.91+0.13
2Stephen Curry0.660.81+0.15
3Kevin Durant0.800.77-0.03
4Paul George0.660.73+0.07
5LeBron James0.650.72+0.07
6Ryan Anderson0.620.65+0.03
7Dirk Nowitzki0.510.56+0.05
T-8Mike Conley0.320.53+0.21
T-8Kevin Martin0.390.53+0.14
10Klay Thompson0.350.50+0.15

Punting Assists

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Ryan Anderson0.620.84+0.22
2Kevin Durant0.800.78-0.02
3Paul George0.660.72+0.06
4Dirk Nowitzki0.510.61+0.10
5Kevin Love0.550.56+0.01
T-6LeBron James0.650.55-0.10
T-6Brook Lopez0.360.55+0.19
8Serge Ibaka0.350.51+0.16
9Spencer Hawes0.440.50+0.06
10Andre Drummond0.300.49+0.19

Punting Steals

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Ryan Anderson0.620.89+0.27
2Kevin Durant0.800.82+0.02
3LeBron James0.650.69+0.04
4Kevin Love0.550.67+0.12
5Spencer Hawes0.440.62+0.18
6Serge Ibaka0.350.59+0.24
7Chris Paul0.780.58-0.20
8Dirk Nowitzki0.510.57+0.06
9Stephen Curry0.660.56-0.10
10Brook Lopez0.360.52+0.16

Punting Blocks

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Chris Paul0.780.97+0.19
2Kevin Durant0.800.87+0.07
3Stephen Curry0.660.83+0.17
4Paul George0.660.80+0.14
5LeBron James0.650.77+0.12
6Ryan Anderson0.620.76+0.14
7Kevin Love0.550.69+0.15
8Dirk Nowitzki0.510.59+0.08
T-9Arron Afflalo0.390.56+0.17
T-9Kevin Martin0.390.56+0.17

Punting FG%

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Kevin Durant0.800.95+0.15
2Chris Paul0.780.91+0.13
3Stephen Curry0.660.75+0.09
4Paul George0.660.74+0.08
5Kevin Love0.550.73+0.18
6Ryan Anderson0.620.620.00
7Kevin Martin0.390.60+0.21
8John Wall0.340.56+0.22
9Carmelo Anthony0.330.54+0.21
T-10James Harden0.410.52+0.11
T-10Dirk Nowitzki0.510.52+0.01

Punting FT%

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Andre Drummond0.300.86+0.56
2LeBron James0.650.68+0.03
3Stephen Curry0.660.64-0.02
4Chris Paul0.780.63-0.15
5Paul George0.660.62-0.04
T-6Spencer Hawes0.440.54+0.10
T-6DeAndre Jordan-0.080.54+0.62
8Kevin Love0.550.53-0.02
9Kevin Durant0.800.51-0.29
10Ryan Anderson0.620.50+0.19

Punting Turnovers

RankPlayerRegular ValuePunt ValueValue Difference
1Kevin Durant0.801.16+0.36
2Stephen Curry0.661.02+0.36
3Chris Paul0.780.98+0.20
4LeBron James0.650.97+0.32
5Paul George0.660.87+0.21
6James Harden0.380.75+0.37
7Kevin Love0.550.73+0.18
8John Wall0.340.60+0.26
9Spencer Hawes0.440.54+0.10
T-10Michael Carter-Williams0.240.53+0.29
T-10Dirk Nowitzki0.510.53+0.02
T-10Ryan Anderson0.620.53-0.09